#on monday i have to plan a holiday trip with my friend and go to training on tuesday i have training on wednesday i have work on thursday i

[dcfontaines]

one more like 8 hour shift and i have a whole 2 days off <3

[xclowniex]

I truly think that the majority of goyim simply do not know what it has been like for jews in the diaspora since Oct 7th.

When the news first broke, I did not know how far hamas had gotten into Israel, my family in Israel was on a trip somewhere in Israel too and I had no clue where they had gone for a holiday. Whilst I knew they did not live anywhere near the Gaza border, I had zero idea where they were when it was happening. I had zero clue if they were alive or dead. I was stuck in limbo watching all the reports.

Then on Monday, I had to go into work like nothing fucking happened, like I didn't just spend the weekend worrying if they were dead or alive.

When I came into work, my manager who had heard the news who knows I have family in Israel asked me what had happened. I was still processing the news myself. All I told her was that there was an attack on Israeli civilians and she said that she hoped my family was safe.

In the coming days I saw all the protests, all the protests BEFORE Israel had even retaliated. I saw the antisemitic protest in Australia where people were chanting "gas the jews" and thinking "oh my fucking God, Australian culture is similar to New Zealand culture, is a similar protest going to happen here?" I spend so long worried that something like that would happen where I lived. I planned what I would do if I got caught near one, picturing all the common places people protest and planning my escape routes. Thankfully nothing on that scale happened. I was lucky.

None of my friends at the time asked me if my family was safe, but they all posted about Palestine. Keep in mind that all bar one knew I have family in Israel as I've spoken about it multiple times.

I watched support keep coming and coming for palestine when Israel hadn't even retaliated yet, and no support for the Israeli lives lost. I pushed my feelings aside, giving people the benefit of the doubt, maybe just maybe they didn't know the extent of Oct 7th that was released at that time.

After Israel retaliated, I ended up unfollowing so many content creators online because they refused to talk Oct 7th and only talked about Palestine. Were my family just chopped fucking liver to them???? Did my anxiety that I felt about their safety just not matter? Did all Israelis dying not matter to them?

I went to my first Halloween party. It was fun and I enjoyed myself for the most part, but on the way there I kept worrying that someone was going to say something antisemitic, that someone was going to bring up the war and dehumanize Israelis, dehumanize my family. I spent the whole evening on edge, worrying that it would happen. As a result, to calm my nerves I ended up getting super fucked up. It did not work and I overdid the alcohol and weed and I just felt terrible. The next day I felt immense guilt. How could I party? How could I dance when those at Nova were killed when they were dancing?

Then the antisemitism started online. I watched antisemitic tropes just start flying around social media. It's what made me start posting about the war and antisemitism online. My blog turned from clown posts, my special interest, to a space where I could get my feelings off my chest.

Then the antisemitism started in real life. Whenever I wore my magen david, I would get called slurs. I had to start avoiding certain parts of town because of it.

I also felt highly isolated at work. I didn't know who I could speak to about what I was going through. My office is made up of mainly leftists. No one really spoke about the war at work, which in a way made it worse. I didn't know who was normal about jews and Israelis and who weren't.

The harassment got so bad that my partner at the time was begging me to stop wearing or at least hide my magen david as he was afraid that I would be physically attacked.

There were times which I hid it, and I still experienced antisemitism because I have a very jewish nose.

I experienced this for MONTHS.

At one point in time, I tried venting to my friends at the time about the antisemitism I was facing. One of them said that they hadn't seen any antisemitism so they didn't know what I was talking about. I called what they said weird, and they started on this whole tirade that I'm only calling them antisemitic because they're arab. I think this was in November. I looked at their blog and found posts denying oct 7th, saying it didn't happen. I took screenshots in case i needed them in the future. Oh the foreshadowing.

About two months ago, a new person was invited to the friend group discord server. This new person made some pro hamas comments and said they were a resistance group. I explained with proof that Hamas has said that they wanted to kill jews. This was the start of a downfall of my friendship with my ex friends.

2 weeks after that, one of my ex friend vents about the war, and in their vent they dehumanized Israelis. I decided to check all my friends social media posts. I found post after post after post with blood libel, oct 7th denial, antisemitic tropes, dehumanization of Israelis and jews, and posts in support of groups which want jews dead, such as the houthi which have "curse to jews" in their slogan. That new person added to the discord server literally sent a few messages explicitly saying that they support the houthi.

I take a few days to process things and decide enough is enough, and that I need to unfriend them all. I email my local synagogue and get accepted to join after being screened by them to verify that I was in fact jewish and not some antisemite wanting to harm the congregation. I end my friendship with my ex friends with an essay of a message stating what they said, why it was antisemitic and that I do not feel comfortable or safe being friends with them anymore.

Two of them reached out to me to try to fix things. One hasn't really done much, she only didn't ask if my family was safe after Oct 7th + never called out any antisemitism the friend group did. However our friendship could not be repaired as her boyfriend was one of the worse perpetrators of antisemitism.

The other one who reached out supported groups who had tied to Hamas. I asked them to no longer support SJP, and they refused with the excuse of "I already avoid so many activist groups because of white supremacy, it's too hard to avoid SJP. I had to bite my tongue. I wanted to scream at them "why the actual fuck are you attracted to so many groups who engage in white supremacy that you need to actively avoid them? How hard is it to avoid one more! Write a fucking list if you need help remembering!" But I didn't say any of that, I just told them that if that's their choice then we can no longer be friends anymore and I blocked them.

Going to synagogue was amazing. I felt so welcomed and have made some new friends. Reconnecting with my jewishness after not going to synagogue for years was good. It was exactly what I needed. However, it was the cause of the end of my relationship with my ex.

He had his parents force his culture on him since he was a child and hated every second of it. When he immigrated here, he assimilated and wanted nothing to do with the culture from the country he was born in. Whilst he was fine with me participating in jewish culture, he didn't want it brought into the relationship at all. He was fine eating jewish food if i cooked it, but he didn't want to learn about jewish culture or do anything regarding it. I wasn't expecting him to convert, all I wanted was for him to learn the basics about jewish culture, maybe surprise me with some recipies from my childhood like I've done with sri lankan recipies from his childhood when he told me that he's craving them, attend jewish markets when they happen. I did not at all expect him to convert or to become immersed in jewish culture, I just wanted him to make an effort to support my jewishness.

We were looking at marriage and children in the next few years and were discussing how to raise them. I wanted them to learn about their jewish culture as children and it would be up to them if they participated in it or not as they got older. He didn't want that at all. He viewed it as them being "indoctrinated" into judaism. I told him that I feel like he just wants to date some white girl who has a default culture of our country and that I could never be that, I would never throw away my jewishness to be that. And he agreed that he did want someone who just had the default culture of our country. So we broke up. To be fair, I had been thinking about breaking up for months due to other issues, but that was the one which made me go "this relationship cannot be fixed, it has to end or I will be unhappy forever".

On its own, it doesn't seem too bad, but after going through so much antisemitism, the one person who is support to support me, who is suppose to love me, couldn't do that as long as I was actively jewish and participating in jewish culture.

And that's not even a complete list of everything I have gone through since Oct 7th. And I can't make this post without mentioning the amazing jews in my phone, who have been there for me since the start. You have made this hellscape bearable.

Like I said, goyim don't know what it has been like for jews since Oct 7th

[el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle]

I wonder if weekends exist in YSBLF 🤣 or do Ecomoda employees work from Monday to Saturday? If yes, so they only have Sundays off? I don't think anyone ever heard of a weekend there

I wish there was a ep so we could see what they did outside the company on their free day.

What do you think each character should do? Share with us.

Hiii!

I think the work schedule changes! Armando mentions at different points the regular schedule but it's always different. He says at one point that they work everyday including holidays! However there’s a scene (right after the failed double date with Aura Maria) that implies that the date happened on a Friday and they didn't work on the Weekend! So who knows! My bedt guess I'd that Ecomoda's working hours and schedules are as just as loose as the show's timeline😂

Mmm, about what they do on ther weekends, here's my wild guess!

Mario is the easiest: he sees women, goes out to have fun, and sleeps around. I'm guessing he also reads, as we know he's a very well read man!

Daniel works, has work meetings, coctels, reads, listens tk music, and watches some movies

Nicolás is most of his time with tbe Pinzóns, but I'm guessing he spends some times with his mom!

Armando depending on the point in the novela he's either having a great time or a horrible time lmao it's likely his only tome to spend with his dog, tho

Marcela probably likes to spend in at home. We saw that she isn't much of a social girl, and probably only goes out occasionally with a friend to eat or something. Armando definitely wished she were more up to social plans. She gives me plant mom vibes lmao

Betty spends the weekend with her family! Absolutely. Family bonding time. In a wild weekend they go to the movies and out to eat lmao. This almost always includes Nicolás, of course! She also helps her mom out with some home chores

Inesita spends it at home, quiet lonely. She probably hates weekends, and tries to distract herself as much as possible

Hugo goes out to party with his bf or spends it at home on a romantic evening with him. He probably also looks for ways to inspire himself, because more than work, designing is his passion. Museums, quick trips, magazines, etc.

We actually have canon knowledge of what Aura M does. Mainly disappear and go out with dudes and have fun at parties. No one knows about her until about late sunday or early Monday at the latest.

It's harder to guessnabout what others do as we don't really see much about their interests but I' guessing most have common lives, using weekends to catch up with home projects and errands and groceries and all that!

Thanks for the question!🥰

[hidingupmysleeve]

Seattle, Mt. Rainier National Park, Levanworth, the Enchantments, Washington State October 11-15, 2024

Last week I visited my childhood friend (since 8 years old!) Laura who moved to Seattle, WA over 3 years ago. This trip was planned pretty last-minute, as I booked the flight two weeks out. Usually, I book my flights months in advance. I have had a lot going on in my personal life the past six months and knew I needed to see my friend, get away, and be outside. We got so lucky - the weather was perfect. Peak Fall foliage as well as larch season. There is only 3 weeks out of the year where you can see larches which makes it even cooler that I got to experience it.

Mt. Rainier National Park is where we saw prime Fall colors, but I will say that park is like Disney World on steroids. It was a Saturday, and while our first hike wasn't too crowded, our second hike was insanity. We had to park 2 miles away from the trailhead, but eating lunch with the super close views of Mt. Rainier did not disappoint.

The next day, we went to Levanworth, WA to explore the town and hike. Levanworth is a cute Bavarian-style town about 2.5 hours outside Seattle. We decided to get an air bnb (with a hot tub!) and it was so much fun. We were first greeted by two adorable dogs (they do this for every guest, unbeknownst to us) and our hot tub had scenic mountain views. We ate Bavarian sausage, shopped around the cute village, and relaxed in the hot tub underneath the stars.

We also went to a fun bar called Larch, where we sat next to a couple in their mid-fourties who were celebrating their wedding anniversary. We got to talking, and found out that the husband played college baseball with Phillies players Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Pat Burrell (Philly is our hometown). They were telling us funny stories and showing us pictures on their phones. We ended up staying longer than we intended because we all had such a good time chatting, but that's what I love about travel - meeting people with random stories/connections.

The next morning, we got up around 6am to head to Colchuck Lake. This turquoise blue Alpine Lake is part of the Enchantments. It was a 10-Mile out-and-back hike with 2,500ft of elevation. This hike is very popular, and because it was a Monday holiday (Columbus day) we figured we had the best bet in beating the crowds. Our planning worked in our favor because and it ended not being too crowded!

When we reached the lake, I was in awe. I have never seen water that beautiful before. Pictures do not do the summit justice. There were snow capped mountains, larches, and barely anyone around. We ate lunch by the water and took in all the views. I felt such a sense of peace and solace. I told Laura multiple times throughout the trip that I wanted time to stop. It was just what my soul needed.

Even though Laura is my childhood friend, we've always said that is secondary/an afterthought. Our friendship transcends time. I say this, but we did make a joke that this trip was celebrating our 25-year friendship anniversary since we met two couples celebrating theirs. With Laura there is ease, safety, and belly laughs. Truly so grateful for our friendship and this trip.

[canridauis]

in ireland for the semester & i have been doing SOO much more observational drawing than usual!! still not as much as i'd been hoping to do, but...here are some of my favs. all the paint was added long after the drawings themselves

my family visited the first week of break and we drove around a bit..this is the view from our hotel room in drogheda! which i thought was a very cute town, but when i told my mom's friend this she laughed like the concept of drogheda being cute was absolute nonsense. whatever i like towns that are so grey they blend into the sky when it's cloudy. i like towns with a little river. etc.

went to denmark with the history society last week!! soo so fun. didn't draw nearly as much as i wanted to but i did do a little bit from this tower we climbed to get a view of copenhagen

mom and son i saw from the bus window while waiting for it to get going

said bus was a tour bus to giant's causeway..we stopped at a couple other places on the way and these houses by old bushmill's distillery were cute. to me

didnt plan our trip to galway very well and our train back to dublin was too early to do anything for real, so we got on the bus to kinvara (which i spelled wrong) and wandered there for the morning. there isnt much to do there on a bank holiday monday in february!

one of the big common areas at the school i'm at for the semester

[softsky-daily]

12/15/2023

I stayed in all day again oops.

Positive thing: I cooked two (2) whole meals today.

Both dishes involved rice and egg so I guess it was just a strong craving. I'm hoping with the free time I have I can keep cooking a little more. When I had classes, cooking felt like a huge undertaking that I had no energy for, but I can take advantage of the holiday break now.

I mostly spent today sleeping the afternoon away. I called out for work (I have to make it up Monday but that's fine) so I'm basically free as a bird for the weekend. I literally just want to sleep. Getting to sleep in is so nice.

Besides that I tried figuring out more itinerary plans for my Japan trip in February. The other two friends I'm going with are much busier than me (if you can believe that) so I've taken it upon myself to do most of the planning. Also I've been really hesitant to tell people directly about my trip. I mostly just feel like I'm flaunting some kind of wealth to be going to Japan twice in a row like this, not to mention right in the middle of my grad school semester. On the surface it feels irresponsible and indulgent, which I will say it is indulgent for sure, but I know it'll end up fine financially since I already talked things through with my dad. I also already planned ahead for it to disrupt my classes as little as possible. Still, it's hard to shake off the embarrassment of feeling excessively privileged.

At the same time, I know myself and my choices, so it's not like I regret deciding to go. My friends were very insistent I go with them anyhow, and I'm more than happy to find an excuse to go back and visit even for a short time.

I did admit to one of my classmate friends earlier I was going and he was so shocked and asked if I was going to be okay immediately that it took me aback. He calmed down pretty quickly and said he had faith in me to be responsible, so it ended up fine, but I guess not wanting to risk another reaction like that is also why I decided to not tell most people directly.

I think it'll be a good time though. I just hope it doesn't end up too crammed with activities; my favorite parts of traveling are getting to wander around aimlessly, but that's something I have less chances to do when going with other people.

[aetherspoon]

A not-so-simple relocation, day 7/8/9/10

Last Time:

Trips to the aquarium, to my partner's home, to ikea, and to a gaming table to play Dorf Romantik. If you're still with me this far, that's impressive! Have a boat. I think it is a Ketch, but this is definitely not a boat I had seen in Sid Meier's Pirates!, so forgive my lack of boat knowledge.

Day 7 - The day everyone leaves.

Sunday was departure day.

Our friends flights were scheduled to depart at 13:10 local time. This time, everyone were on the correct flights, everyone arrived with plenty of time to spare, everything should be fine!

... yeah, not a single flight for their trips back went to plan. Folks, you might wonder why I grouped four days together on this post. That's because the last of my friends finally got home at 3:55a (my time) on day 10. Which is seven hours ago, as of the typing of this Tumblr post.

Backing up a bit, when I originally booked these flights, I asked my friends what they wanted me to book. I wouldn't be on the flight back, so from my perspective all I was doing was paying for them. The flights back consisted of two sane routes - one gave a 55m layover in Copenhagen, one gave an 8.5h layover in Copenhagen. I warned them that a 55m layover was quite short but, assuming the flights were on time, absolutely doable since you aren't going through airport security. The 8+h one would probably mean they'd get a chance to explore Copenhagen before heading back. They chose the short layover.

They chose... poorly.

The flight out of Bergen was an hour or so late in arriving, meaning their 55m layover turned into a -7m layover. Why was it so late? Because the flight was late in arriving in Bergen. Where did the flight come from? Oslo.

That's right! Oslo needs to get their shit together on Sundays! I told you it'd come back. :)

As they were in the air from Bergen to Copenhagen, I received three notifications about rebooked flights. I looked at the rebookings and realized that my friends were about to have an awful day. You see, when they rebooked their flights, they didn't put them on the later flight, no... they flew them to Stockholm, then from Stockholm to Chicago, then Chicago to Milwaukee.

Wrong direction, sure, but why was I so adamant about their bad day? Because the layover in Stockholm was eighteen hours long. They had an overnight layover. Then another five hour layover in Chicago. Then they had a 7+ hour drive back, then another one of the friends had an additional 13 hours to drive back to his home on top of that first drive. Can you see how it took him four days to get home yet? All because Oslo didn't have their shit together on a Sunday.

I, on the other hand? Didn't do all that much. I finally set up my portable desktop computer, started typing these out, and made an order for cat food and other cat supplies. I would have loved to done some grocery shopping or purchasing of other needed supplies, but I couldn't.

That's because Day 7 is a national holiday here in Norway, as is Day 8. Absolutely nothing was open outside of a couple of small kiosks downtown (and, as I later found out, a couple of restaurants for delivery).

Day 8 - Holiday doldrums.

Norway has an interesting set of national holidays. There aren't a huge number - only one more than the US, in fact - but they're all clumped up around Easter. A full half of their national holidays are latched onto Easter, likely owing to their state religion. Unfortunately, the next national holiday is Christmas Day. This is the year I get short-changed on paid holidays due to my timing of the move from US-based to Norway-based work.

Day 8 is Whit Monday, a part of the Ascension holiday. The last of the bracketed-around-Easter holidays. I'm not Christian (although I was raised in a Christian society, so I have a lot of cultural osmosis there), so the day itself is meaningless to me. Incidentally, same day as the US Memorial Day this year, but that's a complete coincidence.

I basically just cleaned up a bit around the house and attempted to make some online orders... only to fail. Everywhere.

International Banking, part 2

The other thing I said would come back at some point!

When someone from outside of a country tries to order something online inside of the country, one of four things tend to happen:

The order lets you put in an international address for billing, everything works file.

The order requires a domestic billing address, but everything still works fine because your credit card company just nods along.

The order requires a domestic billing address and adamantly fails to run on a non-domestic account.

You can't even sign up to get an order because you don't have domestic contact information.

Most times, multi-national organizations hit option 1. The place I ordered the cat supplies from, for instance, did not care one bit about the fact that my billing information was US-based. The company itself is based out of Germany, so they're used to international business anyway.

Online food ordering around here seems to hit point two. I used a credit card to pay for my food delivery for my friends while they were here; I put in my address here for my home address and away it went.

The other two though? I'm out of luck. My partner has to order things for me, which is utterly ridiculous given that I already owe them nearly 10k USD for house-related expenses anyway. It also makes me feel infantilized, given that I'm apparently not allowed to do anything. I can't repair my own desktop computer without parts, and I can't get those parts without my partner ordering them for me (as that online retailer hits #4 - you literally can't order from them without a Norwegian phone number). They won't do that right now, as they're probably freaking out over just how much money this whole thing has cost. I can't buy a chair that will let my back hurt less (as I'm using a dining room chair right now, which isn't even ours), since that's a site that hits problem number three.

Norwegian telephone numbers

And that brings us to rage target number two. Norway basically has two cell providers - Telia and Telenor. Everyone else is basically using one of those two networks, kind of like how the US basically has four providers and everyone uses one of those four. Similar to the US, there are both prepaid and postpaid options.

Unlike the US, however, Norway uses cell phones for a lot more than just calls and data. Their entire banking system relies on a cell phone number for mobile banking, for instance, and mobile banking is default.

Postpaid options, however, require you to have a two year long credit history. I do not exist according to Norwegian banks. I literally cannot get a postpaid cell phone for the next two years because of this. As far as I can tell, I can't even be added to my partner's postpaid contract as a family member (although I can't be sure on that), giving me fewer rights than a twelve year old here.

So, why not go with prepaid? Let's look at Telenor's site. This is via Google Translate, for reference, so forgive the weird grammar.

So, let's see if I get this straight. Postpaid I can't get because Noob. Prepaid I can get but can't use for BankID (which is the primary authentication method in Norway and the mobile part is used for MFA - kind of needed) or for sending any non-data communication outside of Norway (which is kind of needed to even communicate with my own company / HR departments).

Day 9/10ish - I miss the US.

I mean, given the frustrations above, this is hardly surprising. But damn is it rough right now. I feel like I'm basically trapped here and have made All The Mistakes. Again, I knew this would happen, I just didn't how what would trigger it and how.

Apparently, it is entirely based on the fact that I can't easily leave the house or feed my cats.

Leaving the house

I talked about the hill of doom before. It is 50-someodd meters of a walk uphill, rather steep for someone who grew up within a meter of sea level. I'm not out of breath so much as my legs are screaming at me with high amounts of pain. We're talking comparable-to-kidney-stones levels of pain not counting my gout. There also isn't really a way around it; my apartment is at the end of the road and almost the entire hill is on the same road. There isn't anywhere I could go that I wouldn't need to go up that same hill, even if I just wanted to stretch my legs.

This makes me feel trapped in this apartment. If I had known how steep that hill walk would be, I would have actually rejected this apartment.

My plan for this day was to go up that stupid hill again to go shopping (mall non-grocery), come back, then go up a second time with Kriatyrr to further go shopping (grocery). I've been a bit lazy in the mornings for me, but I'm still up hours earlier than Kriatyrr due to the way my brain works with times. As I was feeding my cats, I realized how low on food we were.

Cat food

We're low. Very low. Kriatyrr had bought a 1.5kg bag of cat food for me before my arrival. My cats eat a prescription food called Hill's T/D - it is for dental health and my cats have been on it for around a decade now. Weighing it right now, I have 469g of food left. Based on when I arrived, that should give me enough food for another eight days... except that my numbers are off. Remember a while back when I said Zoan wasn't eating? He certainly is now, but he didn't start eating until day five. So that information is kind of bunk, but I do have some telemetry data coming from their feeders.

Looking at their feeding history, Issun eats around 1560g per month, Zoan eats around 1450g/month, or around 100g/day combined. So I have four days of food left.

Kriatyrr informed me that the site I ordered my cat food from takes over a week to arrive. I did not realize this. I have made a terrible mistake.

Does that look like the face of a cat that will be happy when I'm out of food? No. That's the look of a creature that will eat ME if I do not feed.

So on Day 9, we went to the grocery store and also added in some supplemental wet food. We picked out a variety Kriatyrr's cats enjoy, as then any leftovers can go to them. We mixed some wet food in with their T/D and fed them last night.

This was the even-worse mistake.

After feeding time, the profuse vomiting began. Zoan threw up seven times in 40 minutes. Issun threw up four or five times in that same span. This continued on until this morning. I've since fed them T/D... only to have Issun throw it all up again, this time on top of multiple objects that aren't easy to clean.

Oh right, cleaning. Did I mention that we still don't have a washing machine? Or freezer?

What did arrive is a letter from the Norwegian Government, addressed to me. I can see it in the mailbox. The locked mailbox, the same locked mailbox we don't have a key for because the landlord never finished giving us things for the apartment.

I'm really fed up with having to rely on everyone to get anything done.

Previous post:

[la-galaxie-langblr]

Long post underneath the cut, I basically ramble about A Levels and some new study techniques I'm gonna be trying out over the next few months :)

I'm back from my trip to London with mum (my first time visiting, it was so much fun!!), so now it's time to make a plan of attack regarding my A Levels

My biggest focus will be French speaking - since I was absent from school for the last few days I delayed getting my mark for a little bit, but I know on Monday I'll have to face the music and own up to how badly I did, and then get to work on improving

But I also need to make a solid revision plan for business and maths, and make sure to start revising sooner than Easter. I want to spend my Easter holidays finishing up notes for Unit 2 in both subjects, and doing Unit 1 past papers. If I still have Unit 1 notes to make by Easter then I'll be in trouble. I don't want to overwhelm myself with work during the Easter holidays because I still need rest, I want to make plans with my friends, I'll be doing more hours at work etc

I'm still too shattered to make a solid plan, but basically I have 5 months until the date of my first exam (business unit 1), so every 4 weeks I want to have done at least 2 things to make progress towards the exam, whether it's updating my notes or doing past paper questions on a certain topic, and since I'll be making unit 2 revision notes as I go along (well, I sure hope I will) I shouldn't have too much to do over Easter??

I can use a similar technique for maths, but for French I'll have to do things a bit differently

The exam board is giving us hints for what's on our listening & reading and literature papers, so once I know what those are then I can properly get to work

Speaking. My French teacher is a bit of a wild card sometimes and you never know when he's going to start introducing extra speaking practice - he did that last year coming up to our real exams as well as holding an extra mock - and while in theory it was supposed to be helpful, his scathing criticism every week was not 💀 My biggest problem for this mock was memorisation, or lack thereof, so I'm gonna try a similar 'every 4 weeks' technique and have a couple of standard questions memorised during that period, and if the French assistant gives any advanced notice or gives me a choice of topics to discuss, I'm gonna try choose one I've 'memorised' to test myself.

A final strategy I might try is a variation on 'touch it once' that I saw on a study tips post. The idea in that particular post is that once you get an assignment/have something to do, you should try doing in one go to as much of an extent as possible - eg if you need to send an email, send it in one sitting, do a set of questions in one sitting, do a particular reading in one sitting etc etc and while I like the idea behind it, I know it's gonna be impossible for me without modifying it, so my version is 'touch it once every night until the due date'. Most of my business and maths homeworks are for the next day anyway, but even with test revision this could work. I'm mainly going to be using it for French - if I get a week to write out a set of oral questions, I'll spend the first night bullet pointing what I want to say, language I want to include, pages in the textbook I might want to reference etc, then use the second night to draft Q1, third night writing Q1 and drafting Q2 etc etc

I know this is basically "spread your work out over a period of time" but for me, if something has a Fun Name then I'm more likely to try it.

Here ends my Using Tumblr As A Diary session :)

[michaelcosio]

One week until Black Friday! Atmospheric Rivers and rain won't stop us!

Capitalbooksonk News

Wed, Nov 20 at 10:28 PM

Hi All!

Going to be a long one, so grab a hot drink and settle in.

Up top, if you are unaware, Heidi and I made the hard decision to close There & Back. While we were getting signs that it was growing in sales, there was still going to another year or more of losing money and at some point you just have to quit while you still have something left. We had a great time (most of it), made a lot of new friends and learned a lot. The day we decided to close, Heidi first wanted to sell all the fixtures and see how much we could recoup from our expenses. The next day she wanted to put it all in storage so we could decide what to do next year after having some time to recover. So this might be more of a break than a close.

But this is my big reminder - if you want to see a small business survive, support it often. We had a lot of people during the last weekend say they always planned on visiting, or meant to come more often. Would that have made a difference? No idea. But there just wasn't enough traffic to support that business in that location at this time. But knowing when to quit is key.

Failure is hard. Failure in public is hard and embarrassing. But for the last 16 years Heidi and I have run multiple businesses with the mantra of "Do more of what works, less of what doesn't". So closing T&BA will allow us to focus more on Capital Books, and build on what is already successful there. We're expanding more sidelines and products for Knotty Novels, bring in even more books, games, and toys for Christmas. That's my less than subtle hint to plan on using us for your Christmas/Holiday shopping in the upcoming weeks.

The Legends & Libraries Ball was spectacular. A few good suggestions for next time (more seating and a wider range of music), but the costumes were overall spectacular and everyone had a great time! Many thanks to our guest authors - Analeigh Sbrana, Allison Saft, Andrea Stewart and, and Angela Montoya. I did screw up by thanking most of one group of supporters, but left one off because I couldn't remember her name from the stage and didn't want to ask at that moment. Sorry Katesin - but at least I won't forget it again.

We didn't do our mailing gift guide this year. Combination of costs (higher this year than previous) and time. We will still send out our "Best Customer" thank you email, and personal holiday cards to all the members. AND I'm bring back the Christmas tree ornaments. I'm making this year's myself! We will have an online gift guide that Katie is working on now and some surprises on Black Friday through Cider Monday.

Normally there are about 30+ days from Black Friday to Christmas Eve. This year there are 26. So order early and plan your trips! And I expect we'll see supply issues coming really soon, so again if there is a book(s) you really want to give or get order it ASAP.

Online ordering - store.capitalbooksonk.com If we think there are problems with your order we'll let you know sooner rather than last minute. But it'll be a mad crush that last week.

Parking downtown - garage at 10th & L. $1.50 a half hour during the week, $6 all day on the weekends. We validate for $5 if you spend $5. So it's almost free, and easier than Arden Fair parking.

Our Romance Book Club is now a year old! Thanks to Hilarie for running it month after month, and also interviewing our romance authors as they visit the store. Join it if you're interested in romance books! Also we're trying to convince Jacob to start a Horror book club every other month, so if you'd be interested, tell Jacob you want one!

I haven't figured out my next book club book, but I did enjoy reading Dead Cat Tail Assassins when Heidi and I were on break. I'll have a new book next week and see if anyone wants to read it and discuss.

So final thoughts - Board Game cafes are hard to do, Capital Books is doing good - but don't leave us out of your holiday buying plans, lots of activities coming up, Tessa Bailey author event in February, support the stores for Christmas that you want to see still in business next year.

[secretewagmaterial]

Glow-Up & Weight Journal:

TW: Please do not read this if you're struggling with an ED or any sort of mental health issue. This is not an ED account, this is my personal weight and glow up journal.

Day # 5

Weight - 211.9 lbs.

"You ever just wanna scream"

Hello tumblr!

Woke up at 7:12AM which was,,, odd. I did some squats this morning that have my legs screaming atm. I don't know why my legs still hurt but maybe this will go away with time. By the way, I took my meds this morning and took my melatonin before writing this. Unpopular opinion but I prefer the pill version and not the gummy version. The gummy version gets stuck to my gums and I literally hate it.

Had a pretty chill day afterwards actually. While I did plan to wash my hair today and such, I couldn't find the shampoo and hair conditioner I use and, of course, I refuse to use the head and shoulders we have. It literally dries out my hair? somehow?

Went on a walk which was cool, def recommend it (even if it's far too cold). I've been looking at towns to move to and I think I've officially found the place for me! It's an hour away from a friend of mine (not too much imo) and the living cost is 5% lower than the current town I'm in. I've got the plan to move out after my trip (sometime between summer and autumn). Most likely moving in during a holiday weekend so I can have extra time to set up my work internet and computer since I need to be connect with an ethernet cord. Those who get it, get it.

I want to wash my hair either tomorrow or Monday since I'm off that day. This did fuck me over but my older brother is coming over tomorrow with his fam and I love them of course but I'm having a bad week. Like I do not need people coming over to make a mess. This is why I want to move out so bad, I'm never alone.

I have a list of teas my friend recommended to me! There's a few different blends and even some caffeine free options (lol love u to death girl) because she went to a tea house. Also, on my walk I stopped by the store and they didn't have the new pink and blue red bulls,,, I was so sad. I love me a good red bull. My friend L joked she'd buy me a red bull fridge for my apartment once I move out.

God I can't stop giggling about moving out. I think about it day and night, it's literally the best thing ever. My friend L did help me out with getting over the guilt of moving out thankfully. I love my family, yes, but I will die if I stay in this house past 20.

Anyway, my melatonin is hitting and I'm on the verge of buying tons of fashion magazines.

Bbbbyyyeeeee~

[umichenginabroad]

Week 11: Explore！

"Is Shanghai fun?", my uncle had asked me in the first week during May. My first impression of Shanghai had been its sheer size, so big I didn't know how to start exploring. Now, with less than two weeks left here, my answer to that question is a confident YES! To recollect my memories of the fleeting moments, I dug into my photo album and saw familiar faces and recognizable landmarks belonging to the different cities I've traveled to. For this week's blog, I want to share some of my experiences here (and tempt you to come to China). Now let's get to it!

May

The first month was all about exploring Shanghai, before classes started to hit and the electric fan started to blow warm air. It was about overcoming unfamiliarity with a new environment and making new friends as walls came down, revealing lively personalities. There were times when conversations dropped, replaced with awkward silence. Later, I became comfortable with the group's silence at times like when we crammed and stressed over our approaching midterms, or when we're so tired we collapsed on the hotel's beds and napped the day away, or when everyone scrolled on their phones as we stood, squatted, and inched forward on the super long line for one short and bumpy ride. With the new friends I made here, and my cousin who's doing the same program, and my other uncle who was vacationing in China and joined me for a bit, I explored a lot of places and got to know them all better. I experienced the magical air of Shanghai Disney, witnessed the frantic bike rush after class, got good canteen food with my buddy and classmates, explored the other SJTU campus at XuHui district, and held a concert glow stick for the first time at a meetup with a Shanghainese friend.

Between studying for classes and enjoying the summer, I have chosen my priority. I went from taking the ambitious 12 credits to doing the bare minimum 6 credits. My mindset changed as I realized I can take classes anywhere anytime, but I only plan to study abroad this one time in my undergrad years. I am not good at multitasking to handle both classes and traveling, so I made my choice. I'll have fun in China and lock in when I'm back in Ann Arbor. With my classes down to Calculus 3 and a Chinese culture class, I'm aiming to get A++ for both classes!

June

June was the rainy season. Shanghai became wet and humid, unfavorable weather conditions for biking, so I rode on cabs a lot. My traveling outside of Shanghai peaked this month, and my photo album overloaded from all the picture spamming during the weekend trips. I wrote three travel blogs during this time. Over the Dragon Boat Festival weekend, I traveled to Qingdao and Yantai and saw a memorable sunset over the bay. I came back on Monday and had the holiday food ZongZi (glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves that can have sweet red bean paste or salty pork belly for fillings) for dinner.

Scrolling down my June album as I write, on the following week, I took an hour long subway to Qipu Lu (七浦路) to shop for Qipao. I have something to share about the marketing and sales here. At one of the first stores we visited, we decided to look around more and compare our options before paying hundreds of RMB on a traditional Chinese dress. However, the owner was not chill about it and began to persuade us to buy the Qipao by offering more discounts. Despite our assurances that we would come back, she insisted we were her first customers and that it would bring bad luck for the day's business if we left without purchasing. Sellers can't force customers into buying, so she eventually had to see us go. That was my first time in Shanghai watching and experiencing such direct sales tactics. Anyways, we ended up getting our Qipaos at another store and dressed up for Suzhou :)

Later in June, I went to Hangzhou twice, once on a program trip to the water-town Wuzhen (乌镇), and the other time I visited the West Lake (西湖) with my roommate. Here are some pictures, some of which I'm stealing from my previous blogs.

Shanghai

Yantai

Suzhou

Hangzhou

July

July was when I brainstormed indoor activities to avoid the heat. I wanted the rain back. I would gladly welcome the dull cloudy sky, the humid weather, and even the puddle splashes that stained my shoes, anything but the glaring sun. Despite the heat, I traveled every weekend. In the following order, I went to Changzhou (常州), Changsha (长沙), Nanjing (南京) & Yangzhou (扬州), and Fuzhou (福州).

This is Changzhou, where I went up the tallest pagoda in the world.

2. Changsha really surprised me.

It's even more crowded than Shanghai and has a vibrant night life. We arrived in the morning and checked into a cute family room that has a rocking horse seat, mini teepee, and astronaut themed decorations on the wall. We napped for hours and came out at around 5pm to see the city.

Changsha is known for their good food. I missed their 果呀呀 fruit teas and 茶颜悦色 milk teas topped with whipping cream. I also had the authentic ChangSha stinky tofu, and it didn't smell as strong as the ones in other cities.

We waited for the DuFu River Pavilion to light up at 7:30pm. It was built to remember the famous poet DuFu from the Tang dynasty, and here's a screenshot from the video as we counted down.

We saw the gigantic sculpture of Chairman Mao below.

3. Nanjing and Yangzhou

Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall and Museum

4. Fuzhou was to see family, bring luggage to make moving out easier, and rest at home.

Okay, that's all on traveling. I've been exploring China for almost three months now, and there are still so many places I want to visit. Seeing giant pandas before I leave is one of my wishes, and I'll be able to fulfill that soon at Chengdu next week!! I had hoped to give helpful tips for planning weekend trips and crafting itineraries, but my writing power is faltering, so I think I'll save them for another time :) 拜拜!

Vivien Lin

Computer Engineering

UM-Shanghai Jiaotong University Joint Institute

[scknight05]

Greetings from the world beyond!!

Okay, so maybe it isn’t that *extreme* (yet) but it kinda feels that way. Especially since I’m starting Day 5 of my 60+hour shift, and still tried from being on my feet all day for my 15.5 hour shift on Thursday. I haven’t slept in my own bed since Monday night so I’m looking forward to getting the next 10 hours over with and heading home so I can sleep in my own bed again tonight!

So.. I haven’t been active for about 17 days… Didn’t really plan on that but it’s just kinda how it happened. The last time I posted I was talking about taking time away due to mental health reasons and other factors that I said I was going to touch more on in a later post. Let’s just say that whatever I was going to talk about at that point kinda went out the window thanks to life. That morning while I was on my way to work, about a mile and a half from my store something happened to my car. More specifically, something happened with the engine. I managed to make it off the interstate and barely make it to my store, albeit extremely slowly. Spent the next 4 days literally stuck at work because I couldn’t go anywhere. I had to have my car towed home and end up driving my dad’s truck after he and my mom made the trip down (for the record, I work over 40 miles away from home so it’s not a short trip). Due to my work schedule, we haven’t had a chance to take my car to the mechanic we typically use because I’ve been having to use my dad’s truck and we don’t want to pay for another tow truck. The thought of trying to figure out WHAT is wrong with my car and how much it will cost to hopefully get it repaired has been terrifying me because having a bill like that is just something I do NOT need in my life right now when money is really tight thanks to other things that have been going on.

So on top of all that, there has been a bit of a heatwave hitting the area and it just so happens that the air conditioner in my dad’s truck does NOT work so I’m stuck having to basically drive with windows down.. and only 2 of the 5 windows in his truck work properly and thankfully one of those 2 happens to be the drivers side window. Window driving is fine.. as long as it’s not raining and I’m constantly moving. And it just so happens that there is supposed to be rain/storms today and into tonight, meaning my almost hour drive home will probably be very uncomfortable.

Now.. back to the work schedule. I am EXHAUSTED at the moment. Today is the first day that I’ve been able to do “personal” stuff while at work because it is post holiday and I’ve thankfully got the store to myself again, except for when the random customer comes in. I have no one to blame but myself for being as tired as I am because I’ve chosen to work a job that revolves around holidays so I don’t get to experience “long weekends” like most do, but for the most part its rewarding. I’m paid fairly well for a retail type job and I get a nice bonus for working the holiday. It’s just the long hours leading up to the holiday, in this case July 4th/Independence Day here in the US, get tiring PLUS me being a night owl and only getting 6ish hours of sleep if I’m lucky means I’m tired. Yeah, I know it’s not healthy but it’s just how I am.

I’m hoping to find my creative streak again really soon and try and make some progress on the multiple story ideas I have lingering in my head and finally get them out. But that may not be as possible as I had hoped since my friend reached out to me at the beginning of the week and was wanting to place a rather large resin order in preparations for the conventions he’s going to be appearing at.. so whenever I wake up tomorrow (as soon as I get settled at home tonight and head to bed, I am NOT setting an alarm and will only be waking up when my body is ready… so it may be another 10am wake up time tomorrow but oh well) and get my laundry started I guess I’ll get to work on that. HOPEFULLY after I get the resin mixed I can switch over to writing.. but I’m honestly not gonna hold my breath.

Speaking of writing, I have finally started another side blog dedicated to me documenting my writing adventures. There’s nothing there at the moment, still setting up the page and whatnot but I’ll try to get that rolled out soon.

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far in this post, thank you for sticking around and reading this. I’m hoping to be more active here again now that things with work have calmed down.

[fifteensjukebox]

Hey hello how about 01, 12, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 and 55 for the HORRIBLE ask game. This year.

hiiiiiii anon! i haven't gotten an anon in ages this is so exciting <3

also sorry i'm answering so late i explain it in the middle but i had a family outing and i thought mobile would let me edit

01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents? i do! my mom's my best friend in a way i'm sure is annoying to people who don't, and my dad is annoying but he is the best dad i know

03: Do you regret anything? biiiiiig question. i try not to. i try to tell myself i needed to do things to learn or whatever but i'm always wondering how else things could've gone and second guessing things as i do them

05: What is your relationship status? very much single. if you want to hear about my latest crushes you'll find it in my "vie" and "lore" tags but i'm sure they're not going anywhere so shoot your shot!

08: Played any sports? my dad coached a soccer team i was on when i was 4 but i was more interested in the dandelions on the field… outside of required gym class stuff (which i did not enjoy) i've enjoyed tennis and beach volleyball with my family (18 y/o brother included)

12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours? i think my record is 36, the last day/night/flight home from seeing my now-ex tumblr gf

well. if anything (back to earlier qs i could say i regret the whole met-online-ldr thing but it was good when it happened and im seeing it work out so well for friends so it could've been worthwhile in the long run!

13: Do you hate anyone at the moment? irl i don't entirely hate anyone but i have some strong mixed near-hate feelings about the exes (and one not-yet-ex? i think? they're on the way out) of people i care about, and a certain ex friend of mine (if she makes the next move in reaching out i might be able to find it in myself to forgive but at this point it won't be as easy as it could've been)

21: What are your plans for this weekend? tbd but probably festive family things? extended family christmas dinner is on monday and we'll do our gift exchange that morning (speaking of which i need to get ready rn to leave for our family brunch followed by mall trip to shop for secret santa - my parents+18 y/o brother+i do a mini secret santa - well mini in that there are only 4 names but we have a generous budget bc it's usually our main/only source of gifts amongst ourselves. i got my mom again this year and she made it a little too easy by requesting a specific pair of raybans that make up most of the budget, but i'll get creative with the rest) we're also going to the distillery district for the vibes on thursday and my dad's taking these 2 days off work so collectively it all feels like weekend plans. maybe i'll go skating on the actual weekend! i haven't done it yet this season and i miss it

update here is that i didn't find anything for mom except the raybans so i may be going out alone to shop more on fri/weekend

34: Who/what was your last dream about? damn. the one time i don't write it down. oh! ok the last one i remember was one where a version of my ex bestie and i got back together so to speak but she was being overtly manipulative and i had to decide if i was ok with that? which. thanks subconscious! way to mix her with the bitch i had a crush on in middle school! real ex-bestie would never do that but i think it's created some irrational fear where before i just had sadness that i was mostly over (to briefly recap the situation there, she's depression-ghosted and blocked me before and she did it again earlier this year but it hurt more bc we'd been closer leading up to it than we had before the first time)

55: Are you mean? i think i can be really petty but people take it hard because they think of me as being so nice, so i know of some people who'd say i'm mean

thanks again for asking anon! i hope you're having a wonderful holiday season <3

[orphancookie69]

Now Traveling: Lake Havasu City, AZ

It is that time of year again. Work is slowing down and I am ready for a vacation. Is there a purpose this time? (Do I need one?) Yes, holiday shenanigans ya know?

Friday:

Drive up was relatively quick, 4 hours or so. Stop by Oatman,CA. I have been by Oatman before, but it was my sister's first time. The donkey's are so cute. There was a scavenger hunt there at night but I was the only one that wanted to go. After we stopped by Bunker Bar. It was 3 miles off the road. We went off roading in a Cadillac. We were supposed to stop by walmart for supplies but the day ran real long. We went to Javelina's Cantina and had nachos for dinner. The christmas lights out there are wonderful. The weather? Cold AF. We watched, A Boy Called Christmas, on Netflix and it wasn't bad.

Saturday:

We got an early appointment with our family friend/Hair magician at Secrets of Beauty! It always does my heart and soul so much good to see her. We came back, stopped by College Street for lunch. We went to Walmart for some supplies. We had dinner at Angelina's. Seriously some of the best pasta ever, like not including from Italy directly. A big part of the trip was supposed to be the 2023 Lake Havasu City Boat Parade of Lights, but I am telling you-people were camping at the channel to watch it in the evening as early as 10 am. It was really cold outside, besides a high of 60/low of 40-there was a wind factor. So we watched from our balcony. We played some Farkle and I won no money.

Sunday:

We woke up and got some breakfast at Makai's. Me and my sister love that diner. My grandma was supposed to practice at the shooting range and we made plans to go Axe throwing, but when she heard about our plans she cancelled hers. So we tried to have lunch at a new Mediterranean place called Majik Bistro, but it was closed. We tried an italian deli that just opened up called Marisa's Italian Deli. The food was so good, they also sell pasta and coffee imported from Italy. I got chocolate lavazza coffee. We got a shake at Dutch Bros, has anyone looked at that menu? It is so massive. I got a Pink Flamingo Frost. We watched a couple of movies: The Secret Dare To Dream and Wind River. The Secret: Dare to Dream was a romantic movie based on the book-better than it should of been. Wind River was a crime movie based on a true story. We went to Yosemite Axe Throwing Havasu. That was way funner than that should of been. We looked at our family friends house being built and its coming along, new houses and construction is everywhere it seems. We tried to go to an arcade bar but decided to save that for next time. We played some farkle before getting ready to go home the next day.

Monday:

We left early, on top of the fact that AZ is an hour ahead, to head home. Drive home took about 4.5 hours. The worst part of the drive is always the california traffic.

Good trip, some old things some new things. Definitely not enough sleep and way too cold. But it was a nice way to round off the year as December just mulls us all over. I for one can't wait to find a local place to go axe throwing.

[adamgant]

Friday Faves 11.10

Friday Faves 11.10 https://ift.tt/DvoKl8d Hi friends! Happy Friday! The weekend is heeeeere. What do you have going on? The girls have birthday parties, and Sunday is my bday. To be totally honest, I always get a little bit of the birthday blahs. I feel like another year is a reminder of all of the things I haven’t yet accomplished, and I’ve never been super into the birthday pomp and circumstance. This is why I usually like to go camping, but I canceled our Sedona trip since we’re all recovering from the flu. I didn’t have the mojo to get us packed and ready to go. So instead, we’re doing brunch with the family, and taking it easy. I wanted to do a little something special here to celebrate the ol’ 3-9, so from now until Monday at midnight, you can get 6 months of Fit Team for $197. (Note: this is a membership and can be canceled at any time.) ALL of your fitness programming, done for you, plus bonuses to make meal planning easy, recipes, playlists, and community support, all for less than $33 per month. You can sign up here!! FAQs and more info can be found here. If you have questions, please let me know – I’d love to help! This is the lowest price Fit Team will be and after Monday, it will go up to regular price, which is $297. It’s time for the weekly Friday Faves party! This is where I share some of my favorite finds from the week and around the web. Please shout out anything you’re loving in the comments section below. Friday Faves 11.10 Read, watch, listen: How do you parent a tween? New Mean Girls musical trailer. Loving this predictable yet sweet read. My friend Brittany recommended this book on IG, so I ordered a copy to read with P. She says it’s her new favorite Christmas book. It’s a great story and we’ve loved reading it together. Fitness + good eats: It feels good to be back in cooking mojo. I’ve made beef chili and gf cornbread this week, pesto pasta with shrimp, and a roast chicken. After 10 days of takeout, it’s been good to get back into the swing of things. If you’re planning your turkey recipe, I’ve got you. Kale apple salad with crispy shallots. Sakara Black Friday is here early! You can use XOGINAH for 25% off sitewide. I’m obsessed with their meals. They’re so healthy and delicious and it feels like such a gift to eat these beautiful meals I didn’t have to make. Fashion + beauty: *Just a heads up, if you have your eye on HigherDOSE, wait until Monday! The gift guide party is going strong! Check out For Her, For Him, and For the Kids. October bestsellers from the blog: It’s always fun to go through analytics and see which products you loved the most each month that I’ve shared here. I appreciate it so much when you shop through my affiliate links. It directly supports our family and your support means so much to me. Here are the top picks from October: – This half-zip! The softest coziest dreamiest sweater in the land. – Custom pet embroidered sweatshirt – These kids’ one-piece pajamas. – This Somerset dress for holiday parties. – These cute and comfy joggers – This long wool cardigan Happy Friday, friends!! xo Gina The post Friday Faves 11.10 appeared first on The Fitnessista. via The Fitnessista https://ift.tt/Ijqbkn6 November 10, 2023 at 06:24AM

[maupuia]

More Than A Feeling - a tramp along the Travers-Sabine circuit

The lead up

"I'm thinking of hiking the Traverse-Sabine next holidays if anyone's keen. Sometime late September to early October." messaged Mark, and having recently done an overnight trip in the Tararuas and therefore totally in shape, I was in. It wasn't an area I'd tramped in before, so I was keen to see if it lived up to the hype. We'd be joined by Steve, an old friend of Mark's.

Having not bought any gear for a while, I immediately went out and bought a dehydrator and started going down the rabbit-hole of DIY dehydrating. For the trip I dehydrated both full meals - bolognese and vegetarian chilli - and various fruits, vegetables, pasta and mince which I combined into meals. Yes, you dehydrate cooked pasta - it means that you just need to rehydrate again, no need to cook it on the trip.

The weather in the week prior to the trip wasn't great and we debated the gear we'd need, essentially ice axes and micro-spikes. Thank you Dom for the ice axe - it was needed, albeit briefly.

However, things looked to be on the improve for the week of the trip and on Sunday I arrived at the airport ready to take the very small Sounds Air plane with the very young pilot across to Nelson. Just about to walk into the terminal, I turned back to the car just as Deb was jumping out of the driver's seat.

Deb: "You walked away with the car keys!" Me: "I left my raincoat at home!"

It's a good thing we live close by.

All trips should start with being met at the airport in a gold Mercedes.

The drive from Nelson to St Arnaud of course included a stop for a pie along the way. Steve has a bach there so we dropped our gear, went for a little walk to the lake and then to the Alpine Lodge for a couple of pre-trip beers. The forecast was wet and cold for Monday, but clearing after that.

Day 1 - to Lakehead hut

Packs were packed. And compared. Steve had the heaviest pack and the most food. Mark had the oldest pack - his Father's wooden H-framed canvas pack. No hip-belts to relieve the loads on these. I had the lightest, most colourful and most expensive pack. A big breakfast at the Alpine Lodge and we were ready to leave the top Mt Robert carpark just after 9am. The skies were dark and lowering. The first rumble of thunder happened about 20 minutes in. It started raining soon after that.

The plan was to lunch at Coldwater hut and then head onto John Tait hut for the night. Coldwater hut was cold. It had been raining since we left. Mark was wet. Mark was cold. Mark also had a cold. The thought of another 5 hours to John Tait hut was not appealing. Coldwater hut, with the stone floor and no firewood and the wind whipping off the lake was not appealing. Mark was coughing and spluttering. Caught between a stone floor and a cold wet trek, Steve had the frankly brilliant idea of sidestepping 50 minutes across the river to Lakehead hut - much nicer, firewood, dry. It meant a change of plans, and Mark put up some token resistance, but a couple hours later, we were warm, dry and looking at the weather coming down the Travers valley.

So, did I mention I have a very expensive, very lightweight pack? It leaks. Three hours walking in the rain and the back panel was soaked and there was a puddle of water in the bottom of the pack. I was not entirely happy. Photos were taken and emails have subsequently been sent.

Day 2 - to Upper Travers hut

The day dawned clear, calm and cold, with a dusting of fresh snow on the hills. It was to be the first of four days in a row of glorious weather. The walk up the Travers valley is just stunning. Easy walking, little bubbling side streams, mountains coming into view. As Mark and I kept mentioning, the Tararuas it is not!

We had a late lunch at John Tait hut before the final push to Upper Travers. Arriving there, a little before dusk, in the cool calm, with a ring of mountains around us was magic. I'll admit to being pretty tired by that stage, but also to wanting to be nowhere else.

On 1 October, the day before we started our tramp, DOC switched rules over for hut passes. No longer were annual hut passes valid, but you needed to buy a $25 serviced hut pass for each of the Nelson Lakes huts. Having possibly misread the DOC website, I'd purchased an annual hut pass a couple of days before we left. ( Yes, this was also an act of faith in my body holding out! ) Mark had done the same. Steve, bless him, informed us on the Friday before leaving of the new rules. I decided to just go with what I had, whereas Mark went into the Nelson DOC office to try and refund his annual pass and buy hut tickets. He left with both the pass and new hut tickets. DOC 1 - Mark 0. He was not happy to find no firewood at Upper Travers hut and in a "rage against the machine" moment, did not use his hut pass that night.

Day 3 - to West Sabine hut

There were four keas waking us up in the morning!

We had intended to have been at West Sabine hut by now, and to have had a short day to Blue Lake hut. As we were behind schedule, the plan was to get to Blue Lake hut today.

The walk up to Travers Saddle was why you do these trips.

It's so long since I've been in the South Island mountains like this, it was all I could do not to just sit down and take in the scenery for an hour. The final approach up towards Travers Saddle steepened, with snow. We were following the footsteps of someone who'd gone through the previous day, but later in the day and their footprints had sunk deeper into the softer snow. We decided to don micro-spikes, break out the ice-axes, and cut some steps up the final steep pitch. Well, Mark and I did. Steve, wearing boots and not trail shoes, let us do the hard work and just clomped on up behind us.

No wind on Travers saddle. Views all around. Fresh snow. What more could you ask for?

Less snow on the other side, but glorious long views down the East Sabine river.

It's a long descent down to the East Sabine river. I went down slowly and carefully, tending to my knees and found Mark at the bottom, lying back on the soft grass in a sunny spot, having a cup of tea. He'd been there a while. Steve arrived a while later and I was very appreciative of the rest it allowed me. Mark was still coughing and suffering from his cold and at times meant we could almost keep up with him. I made the mistake of trying to sympathise and saying it must be tough going to do all of this with the cold. Mark responded, "To be honest Mike, I'm not going fast enough to notice it." Ouch!

I arrived at West Sabine hut sometime around 2pm. My first words to Mark were, "I'm not going any fucking further today!". And that was Blue Lake hut crossed off the itinerary. There were two hunters in the hut already and this is a story worth telling.

It was a father and son. The son was 59 and the father 83. They had set off the day before around midday from Sabine hut for the - DOC timed - 5 hour trip to West Sabine. They had a boat which they've left at the Sabine hut jetty. The son said he usually took around the DOC time for a trip, so didn't think anything of leaving his Dad behind after about 6 hours so as to get to the (presumed nearby) hut and get the fire going and dinner on etc. When his Dad hadn't arrived by a little after 8pm, he went back along the track till he found him, took his pack and then both arrived at West Sabine around 11pm. So 11 hours for the 5 hour walk. They were having a rest day when we arrived. Understandably.

The first thing we noticed was an explosion of dehydrated food packets spread out on the bunk. The son said he was trying to get to grips with dehy food and what was needed. They had 8 main meals and various desserts and such between them. The two of them. For a 3 night trip. That was the dehy food. They also had fresh steaks, and bacon, and eggs, and meat patties. The latter of which they gave to us, so we had a pre-dinner snack. They had a goddamn bag of potatoes! They had two cookers and various pots and pans. The son carried a rifle. Just in case they saw something. Somehow we got around to asking the son how heavy his pack was. Reader, it was 35kg! On seeing our look of astonishment, he was quick to point out that one reason it was so heavy was that they were carrying 10 litres of bottled water between them. 10 litres! For a supposed 5 hour trip! Beside a river! With lots of lovely side streams along the way! They weren't sure it was safe to drink the water along the way.

We had a great time and conversations hanging out with them that night! Everything aside, I'll be very happy to be still tramping at 83.

Day 4 - to Sabine hut

The plan was to make it to Speargrass hut and so leave us with a very easy walk out on the final day, and time for wine, women and song at the Alpine Lodge.

Plans, amirite? I'd hoped, every morning on waking up and getting underway, that my legs would have gotten stronger and found their true tramping rhythm. Spoiler: they did not.

Mark, sometime on the final day, "I'll be honest Mike, you were both getting slower each day." He values honesty, does Mark!

Twenty minutes into the day and Mark catches me and says, "How about, instead of going to Speargrass, we head up the Mt Cedric track from Sabine hut, and get to Angelus for the night. Then head out along Robert Ridge." I told him I'd take the suggestion under advisement. [ Editor's note: At Sabine hut, there's a sign that says, basically, "the Mt Cedric track is very steep, takes about 6 hours, oh, and there's no water sources along the way." ]

Forty minutes into the day and I told Mark he could fuck off with his Mt Cedric track idea and do it by himself if he wanted. Steve and I would not be partaking.

It's actually a lovely track down the Sabine river.

Steve and I arrived after about 5 hours. Mark was drinking a cup of tea. Having told him Mt Cedric was not happening, we looked at how far it was to Speargrass hut. Another 5 hours. "Fuck you, Mark. We're not doing that either!" We spent the rest of the day enjoying the sunshine, sandflies and stunning lake views at Sabine hut.

Day 5 - out to Mt Robert carpark

We a final 9 hour day beckoning, we were out the door at 7am on a lovely cool calm morning.

There's a steady climb from Lake Rotoroa, then a long sidle around to Speargrass hut. I was… getting slower. Steve asked me a couple of times where I was hurting. "Everywhere!" But, as always on this trip, the bush and trail were just lovely.

For 4 1/2 days of the tramp I'd had an earworm. I've been listening a lot to a wonderful album by this country singer - don't worry, she's quite obscure, you won't have heard of her - and snippets of the songs from the album had been in my head. Constantly. Every step. When I tried to sleep at night. On waking up. It's a sign of a great album but also, gimme me a break!

I was walking along on the final day, tired, sore, head full of these incessant songs, and then suddenly… like the sun breaking through the clouds; like manna from heaven; like the hallelujah fucking chorus… the song "More Than A Feeling" by Boston, came into my head and swept everything else away. This song is a classic 70's banger and officially the best song in the world.

Speargrass hut in 5 hours for a lunch stop. Then the final 3 hour walk out. Halfway along this, Mark finally snapped as Steve called for a rest stop. "I'll see you down the track", said Mark, striding off. Spoiler: we didn't. We'd been passed earlier by a young French guy who left Speargrass hut a little after us. I think someone's pride was hurt. The French guy never stood a chance. Apparently he told Mark, who was waiting at the carpark, "You walk very fast! I couldn't keep up."

It was a wonderful trip! I think right on the edge of what I can do at the moment, but my knees seem to be ok, and 3 days later I'm almost walking normally. Great company. Beautiful track. Would do again!

A fuller selection of trip photos is available here.